Gadroc's A-10 Build

Gadroc

Any chance you could share the dxf of the front panel?

They are now posted up here.

Thanks for the explanation. I know you have a real LDG panel and I guess you are going to implement this locking feature. Interesting. Now that i'm thinking about it i want it too :)

weight on wheels is the trigger... does dcs export provide a flag "lever unlocked", "airborne" or "weight on wheels"? How are going to determine when to unlock the lever?

Thanks

DCS does not export weight on wheels, to my knowledge. The closest I can think of is nose wheel steering as the button that activates it behaves differently in the air. I haven't decided what to do with it yet. I'm either just going to hard wire it to be powered on when the pit/profile is running or I'll remove the linkages.

I also got my landing gear panel wired, mounted and working. I need to fabricate the flaps gauge yet. Going to put together a 3D printer so I can print out the mechanisms and gauge tube that will fit in the real clamp. Wife is going to love it when the parts start showing up for that just after completing the laser upgrade.

Impressive progress, Gadroc.

Thanks Gadroc. With your Front Panel dxf I now have another holiday project. :-)

Looks very good. Do you have modular desing to make it easier to move this pit if necessary?

Hmm, looks good! :thumbup:

Cheers,

Stefan

Hi Gadrock,

Geat work. I justed printed your table of inputs and outputs and was wondering if a switch,button etc not imlemented in A10-C was included or left off the table

Great work! It looks very well!

AHCP Completed

I have completed the AHCP using a different light plate construction than before. I've more than pleased with the results.

I've built it from three layers.

Layer 1 - Switch plate - 1/16th inch black acrylic (will eventually replace with aluminum). Switches around mounted to this layer along with 3mm LED holders which allow LEDS to be replaced / removed with out taking the panel apart.

Layer 2 - 3/16th inch clear acrylic. Holes big enough for the nuts around the switches and the tops of the LEDs.

Layer 3 - 1/16th inch row mark laser max. Holes per real panel but enough for switches to go through and labels engraved on it.

I arrange the LEDs about 3/4" inch apart taking care not to put one directly behind letters.

Layer 3 is glued on top of layer 2. I think use masking tape to protect to engraved front side and then fill the led holes on the back of layer 2 with putty. I then spray paint a layer of white onto the back and sides of layer 2. Once that's dry I spray paint black over top of the white (do two or three layers to make it totally opaque). Lastly I touch up edges with black paint.

This results in a very nice even backlighting and a solid light plate the same depth as real ones. I did make a few mistakes on this one. First the SAFE next to the GUN/PAC switch is to close and second and I put one LED right behind the bottom right of the E in ALT SCE label. It's overbright which caused the distortion in the image.

it looks very good :thumbup:

looks good indeed.

interesting approach. i arranged leds (square dome 3mm "wide angle" ones) on switch plate directly behind the lettering (used clear intermediate layer too) seemed even enough, , although i did engraved on 1/8 white sheet.

how many leds total for this panel?

i noticed you use white for your back-lighting. isn't it supposed to be green?

There are 13 LEDs on this panel for backlighting. I use the laser max instead of engraving through paint onto a thicker white plate for durability. It's really hard to scratch the laser max material, doesn't take much to scratch off the paint from the acrylic.

Green is for night vision lighting. Depending on timing there are red and green version as far as I understand. Unfortunately the landing gear panel I have is non nvis white, so I'm going to stick with white for my panels.

So jealous! ;)

Nice Work:thumbup:

Hmm, that looks gooood! :thumbup:

Looking forward to see more of your stuff.

Cheers,

Stefan

Backlighting is tough to do correctly... I think Gadroc has it down!

Can't wait to start mine... again!

outstanding pit Gadroc

Looks great (and that's an understatement :-)

I have completed the AHCP using a different light plate construction than before. I've more than pleased with the results.

Alright you've convinced me! Will be looking into the engraveable acrylic instead of paint on acrylic.

By the way, can you please share the light output of the LEDs you are using (millicandella) (or even better the model number). I see outputs ranging from 10 to 10,000+ and would like a ballpark to start sourcing components.

The costs of these kinds of products are worth looking in to as well. The idea is that they have some kind of special structure that the LED lighting will evenly illminate the panel rather than just go through it and hotspot it. Potentially you could go from 30 leds to just a few.

http://www.acrylite-shop.com/US/us/category.htm?$category=crfo8s7j0ro

http://www.plexiglas-shop.com/GB/en/category.htm?$category=hrikze7jsb4

Have you tried it yet? I may order sheet but need to verify I can cut it with the laser.

I havent yet, I cant get the acrylite over here but I could possibly get the plexi product if they sell it by the square meter.

Going by the GB site it would be around $120/sqm which isnt that bad if it gives EL panel performance without the hassle.

I just got a quote for both the edgelit and the truled products I can get over here.

$175USD for a sheet which is 2000x1500mm of the truled variety, i.e. they require backlight and the panel is 3mm thick.

Also $282USD for the edge lit product, 4mm thick in a sheet that is 2000x1500mm

They dont do samples but it looks like I will be able to get a piece around 150x150 to cut out and try to do something with.

what hassel with EL are you talking about?

Just the small things, price, no worry about wires going in to the panel/being constrained by what wires/where they are on the EL you get. The Acrylic can be part of the standard panel, I.e. one on the existing layers rather than another part you need to fit in so I see it could be a bit easier to do it this way if it illuminates well.

Wee progress! I finished my flaps indicator today.

It's setup using a sub-micro servo. The lighting on it is not that great, but workable. I have two led's projecting behind the flaps and symbol. They also front light the needle and rule. The flaps is very uneven, but the rule is nicely lit which is the important part anyways.

For Helios crew I did find a bug in the phidgets servo where it was not properly saving your servo type. I'll be posting a new Helios version sometime this weekend with the fix.